As none other I know how problematic it is to discuss matters related to politics on the web. However, every now and then, there's no way around it, and this is one of those moments. There's this thing going on at airports in the US, and while many will see it as a separate issue, the body scanner issue, and the sad stories it has spawned, are symptoms of a far larger problem that is a direct threat to everything we've fought for during and since the Enlightenment.

I thought PGP had been banned for a while but that the related laws where later lifted. At the time encryption was considered a military weapon and PGP encrypted data could only be transferred over a very few friendly borders.

If I do remember correct, the outcome was actually an encryption brain drain from the US. encryption researchers couldn't share information with researchers in other parts of the world. As a result, to do any real research, you had to be outside the US where you could legally co-oporate with other researchers. The US started to fall behind as researcher continued elsewhere.

I'm not sure if either of those memories are correct but I'll through it out there for interest.